Getting Ready for Rosh Hashanah

Prayers to say, vows to renounce.

Because there is so much at stake spiritually during Rosh Hashanah, we make preparations beginning a full month earlier.
At Rosh Hodesh Elul, or the start of the new month of Elul, we begin to stir with anticipation for this day of spiritual renewal. We set out our spiritual provisions by readying our minds for prayer and our hearts for forgiveness and by doing whatever we can to attain God's compassion and mercy when the Day of Judgment arrives.

Shofar and Tallit

Sounding the Shofar

The most prominent feature of the month of Elul is the sounding of the shofar each morning, except on Shabbat. Three primary reasons are given for this practice. The first one is to confuse Satan about the date for Rosh Hashanah, so that he will not be able to affect God's judgment of people with his accusations against them.

The second one pertains to a rabbinic legend, which says that Moses' ascent to receive the second tablets on the first of Elul was accompanied by blasts of the shofar. Therefore, the shofar reminds us of the story of the Golden Calf and that we must always be aware of our potential for sinning.
The third one has as its source the famous phrase heard at many weddings from the Song of Songs (6:3) Ani l'dodi v'dodi li, meaning "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." The first letters (aleph, lamed, vav, lamed) of each Hebrew word form an acrostic for the word Elul. From this hint, we gather that the period extending from the beginning of Elul through Yom Kippur (a total of 40 days) is a time ripe to become beloved by God. The shofar alerts us to that loving relationship.

Penitential Prayers

Another important practice during Elul is the recitation of selihot (literally, "forgivenesses"), which are penitential prayers and poems added to the daily morning prayers. This custom is based on a legend portraying King David as troubled over how the Israelites will be able to truly atone for their transgressions. God responds by advising him that the people should confess their sins by saying poems and prayers of penitence.

Sephardim (the Jews of Spain, Portugal, the Mediterranean basin, North Africa, the Middle East, and their descendants) recite selihot for the entire month of Elul until Yom Kippur (except on Shabbat), early every morning. That 40-day span of time parallels the period that Moses spent on Mount Sinai.

However, Ashkenazim (the Jews of Central Europe and their descendants) follow a different tradition. They begin saying selihot closer to the start of the holiday. Depending on the pattern of the calendar, recitation of selihot begins either just after the Shabbat that precedes Rosh Hashanah or exactly a week earlier. (Because a minimum four days of saying selihot is required, if Rosh Hashanah begins on a Tuesday or Wednesday, the saying of selihot must be moved forward.)

The part of the Ashkenazic tradition that requires a minimum four days of selihot is based upon the laws about sacrifices during biblical times. The laws required isolating the perfect sacrificial animal from contact with other animals for four days to preserve it from becoming blemished. Consequently, we say selihot for at least four days to symbolically offer ourselves as a sacrifice. We meticulously engage in prayer and self-examination to rid ourselves of any spiritual defilement that might impede our pure commitment to God on the Day of Judgment.

Either way, the preferred hour for the first recitation in Ashkenazic tradition comes on Saturday night, motzei Shabbat (the "exit" of the Sabbath), rather than Sunday morning. Evening is the actual start of the Jewish day, and we honor a tradition by beginning at the earliest possible opportunity. In this case, however, Ashkenazim wait until midnight to say the first selihot because of a desire to extend the beauty of Shabbat until the last minute.

A 19th-century Russian rabbi, Yechiel Michel Ha-Levi Epstein, compiler of the Arukh Ha-Shulhan, offers a beautiful reason for the Ashkenazic motzei Shabbat tradition, a reason that he bases on the order of Creation. Human beings were created on the sixth day, or erev Shabbat (the day before Shabbat). The first full day of life for human beings was Shabbat, a time when things remain still. It is therefore appropriate that when Shabbat leaves on Saturday night, human beings express one of their primary purposes in life, which is to offer selihot, passionate pleas of devotion to the Master of the Universe.

Paul Steinberg is a rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California and is the Head of the Etz Chaim Hebrew School. He previously served as the Rabbi and Director of Jewish Studies and Hebrew at Levine Academy: A Solomon Schechter School in Dallas, Texas.